Let’s Play!

Discovery Place KIDS’ Debbie Curry talks about a dream come true

by Lori K. Tate   |     photography by Glenn Roberson

If you’ve been to Discovery Place KIDS (DPK) in Huntersville, you probably found yourself saying, “Wow! They thought of everything.” Well, the children’s museum pretty much did, especially if you’re under 42 inches tall. One of the people who helped think of everything is Debbie Curry, director of Discovery Place KIDS. As the former vice president of education at Discovery Place, Curry led the charge for the children’s museum and has worked for the past six years making is a reality. We recently talked with the Cornelius resident to find out how the first few months of operation have gone.

How do you think DPK has been received so far?

Oh I think it’s been received very well. Our attendance has been great. The parents give us great comments that they’re so excited that it’s opened. They really love it. We’ve had 100s of blogs on the Internet. We do our Google alert so we can see whenever our name is coming up. Parent after parent puts photos up of their trip and talks about what a great time they had while they were here, so that’s been great feedback for us and great marketing for us too because mothers are sharing with other mothers, parents are sharing with other parents. It’s kind of word of mouth.

Do you know how many visitors you’ve had so far?

We’ve had over 25,000. We opened October 23, 2010. That figure is through the end of November. We knew it would be popular, but I think it’s much more popular than we ever dreamed. We’ve had a great response of families buying memberships. We tell people when they come in, “You can pay your admission and then go try it out and see how you like it.” That’s all we have to do. Then they come back, and they buy a membership.

What has surprised you the most about the reaction to DPK?

Everybody is coming back again and again and again. That was something that we weren’t really sure about. That’s what we wanted it to be, that kind of place, but I think people are really seeing it as that. We kind of thought that’s the way things would work but to actually see it happening has been really great.

What seems to be the most popular exhibit so far?

I think it’s different things for different children. The grocery store of course is always very popular. The fire truck being right there at the front, that’s the first place that folks gravitate to. The clubhouse, the climbing structure. I stay in the lobby sometimes and try to greet people and as people are leaving, I ask the children what their favorite thing is. What did you do today that was your favorite? They love the activity of climbing. Climbing all the way up and sliding back down, climbing up and sliding back down. They’ll do it over and over again. The car care center has also been popular. Little ones are there all the time. Of course, the water table is popular. The thing I love is the babies at the water table. It so fascinates me. …It’s so much fun to watch them, just that look of pure wonder on their face.

What are DPK’s goals for the future?

I think we’re interested in really seeing how we can be more of a community resource. I think our future goals are working with teachers and getting school groups in here, being in the community for teachers and pre-school teachers. We hopefully want to be seen as a place where they can go for resources, for help, for education. We really want to become a resource throughout the community, seeing that we carry the banner for play and helping people understand that play is important for all children. It’s really something for a community to have a safe place for children to come and play.

What’s your favorite exhibit?

Probably I Can Grow is my favorite. I’m very partial to the little guys. I like all the color in there. I have to tell you that when we were designing the museum, one of the things that I used was Lois Ehlert’s book Waiting for Wings, and I kind of said, “This is my inspiration.” I love her art. I love the colors that she uses. It’s not like your primary colors. It’s fresh pinks and yellows.

I told the designer this is my inspiration book, and so he designed the space using the colors from there. When we got ready to do all the graphics for the museum, I told the graphic artist that this was my inspiration for this area and he knew her. He actually contacted her and her publicist. We talked to her, and we told her about the museum. The things that you see on the wall there [in the I Can Grow] that’s her art. She donated it to us. She gave us the art from her book, Waiting for Wings. The butterflies hanging down from the ceiling are the butterflies from her book.

Who was the designer of DPK?

Mike Walker of Creative Strategies.

It sounds like you’re in the museum a lot so have there been moments when you go down there and you think, “Wow, this is what it’s all about?”

As you can see [by my desk], it’s kind of like run and throw because we’ve been so busy. We’re trying to hire additional staff because we’ve been so popular. We’re running all the time. But when we get frustrated, we go down there and watch the kids and just see how they’re responding, see how the parents are responding.

One of the things that we do is in each theme area we have a clipboard. It’s a place where staff can make notes and keep track of things throughout the day — what kind of supplies they need — and then they pass them on to me. We have a place on the sheet where they can share a Wonder Moment. They share them, and I compile them all together. Then every couple of weeks I send out a little thing to the staff and volunteers. I say here’s some wonder moments, here are some really fun things or exciting things that you saw happening with a child or a parent and a child interacting with each other.

The first day we were open, our little guy who we call Pablo was on the stretcher in the ambulance. We put some bandages and some different things out there, and it was just interesting through the day. At first when I went in there, Pablo had hurt his arm and he was all bandaged up. I went in later, and he had a bandage around his head. A couple of hours later, the other arm was bandaged. I was thinking, “Poor Pablo, he’s having a rough day.”

The other day I was called down to the floor when a child fell. He had fallen by the tractor, so I went running over there, checking to make sure that he was okay and talking with his mom. Then I looked up and here’s a little girl. She had run to the ambulance. She got the stretcher, and she brought it the tractor and she was there. She was ready. She was going to put him on the stretcher because she thought he was hurt. She was going to put him in the ambulance, and she was going to doctor him. And I thought this is so cute. It was so sweet to see her there. She just ran and got the stretcher. She was right there and ready. She was like 4, and she was into it. She was the doctor. She was going to take care of him. So just little things like that keep us going when it’s busy and hectic.

As far as future programs and exhibits, what’s coming?

We basically kind of run on themes here. So the way we’re doing it is right now since we’ve opened we’ve been focusing on I Can Explore Underwater, and we’ve been really focusing on the ocean and animals that live in the ocean. Our storytime, our art projects, our puppet show, our science show have all been about the ocean. In the middle of December we changed to winter animals. We had a new storytime, a new puppet show, a new science show. The science show focuses on hibernation and migration. What do animals do in the wintertime?

How long will that go on?

It will be until the second week of January. So we’ll have four weeks of winter animals. For the rest of January and February, we’ll be focusing on I Can be Healthy. We’ll be doing things in the art studio about being healthy and the human body. We’ll have a new puppet show that’s called Lub Dub A Healthy Heart. We have a story about eating well and movement and exercise. We also have Big Fun.

What is that?

Big Fun occurs at 11:45 a.m. and at 4:45 p.m., and that’s our transition time. We know with little guys it’s really hard to transition from “it’s time to go home” or “it’s time to go to lunch,” so we do that at the end of the day and we do that right before lunchtime.  We’re trying to help parents know that we can help them transition their child and get them ready to go home.

How did you do that?

We go around to all of the exhibits, and we invite all of the children to a party. We invite them all to come out into the center of the museum. That’s where the party is. That’s the first step. We give them about five minutes or so. Then we start playing music so they know that it’s happening. That helps pull them away from whatever exhibit they’re in at that point. Once everybody is in the center, we dance and sing. We have different songs we play that we have actions to. That lasts for about ten minutes and then we say, “Goodbye, it’s time to go home,” if it’s time to go home for a nap. If it’s the end of the day, we talk about how it’s time to go home for dinner. Then the kids see lots of people leaving, and so it’s not like Mom just told me I have to go home, and I’m not happy about that. It helps us to get them out without crying. When they’re going out to the lobby and they’re crying, we know it’s hard on mom and dad but we say, “Oh wow, another satisfied customer who doesn’t want to go home.” I was down there the other night, and there was a boy, he was about 2, and he was being carried in arms and he kept saying, “Again, again, again.”

This is the first museum for Discovery Place outside of uptown Charlotte. Are there plans to eventually do others?

Yes, our hope is that eventually this will be a network. We’re actually working on site number two right now.

Where is that?

Rockingham. We have to find a partner that we can work with and a partner who is committed to working together. We’ve talked with a lot of potential other partners, but right now they are the partner that’s ready.

We truly had a wonderful partnership here with the town of Huntersville. They love this facility, too. They’re here every day. They’re right upstairs. We just have to find another partner with that kind of partnership, too.

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